Soccer push aims for maximum impact - Media in Canada

by Gariné Tcholakian
It's not easy for a professional soccer club to compete with well-established sports like hockey or football in a city like Vancouver. So Publicis Vancouver is stepping in for the Whitecaps with a transit poster campaign that draws on the excitement and raw energy of watching a live Vancouver Whitecaps game. The giant image conveys the emotion, action and intensity of the game - in one hundredth of a second - and positions the split-second experience as a glimpse of what could be in store for fans over the full 90 minutes.
The four-week campaign launches mid-March in preparation for a final season tickets and mini-pack sales push just before the season starts. Targeting the 13-to-35 soccer-involved male demo, the 139"x30" mega-poster was placed above terminal doors at Seabus King stations across the city, where 400,000 riders pass monthly. Bus posters play up the theme as well, visible both to transit passengers and car commuters.
"The strategy for the media buy was based on past impact," Nancy Small, account director at Publicis Vancouver tells MiC, "and on the need to reach a geographically dispersed target on a limited budget. Most of our target enters or leaves the city either by seabus, individual car, or walking to public transit."